Apache and Cakephp application

I am running into issues with cakephp application running with CentOs. I did not change any setting in the default config other than added a file under conf.d which content as :

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot /var/www/portal/
  ServerName abc.mydomain.com
</VirtualHost>

When accessed, home page works i.e. app.mydomain.com shows up but none of the CSS,JS and img files are loaded which are under default structure i.e. /var/www/portal/app/webroot/img /var/www/portal/app/webroot/css /var/www/portal/app/webroot/js

So I tried moving them right under /var/www/portal/ and that worked for homepage but clicking on any link on homepage just does 404. e.g. If link is abc.mydomain.com/test In apache log I see the errors as 'File Does not exist : /var/www/portal/test' . It seems that apache is not sending the request to cakephp to process the url.

What could be wrong here? Most likely with the apache security settings but am not sure where to lool.

Is your AllowOverride set to all? Only then the CakePHP rewrite directives which are in .htaccess files start working. Alternatively, you can move them to the virtual host configuration and get them to work.

Ok, this is a common mistake. you should enable "rewrite" --> module rewrite. (this is of course a php module). in ubuntu you usually type sudo a2enmod rewrite. Check for CentOS command.